Saturday, August 1, 2009

No Todd Left Behind

I had a post prepared for today updating all this blog's readers on an interesting new discovery regarding Willow Palin (via photographic evidence, she's been finally and almost certainly disproved as a possibility for Trig's mother) plus some updates on some other things we've been working on. And I will come back to that. But the breaking news is just too hot to ignore.

I too have sources in Alaska. Over the last week, I have also heard rumors of things not being quite right at the Palin abode. I have said from the moment of her resignation that things did not add up, like really didn't add up, like nine plus nine equaling twelve million... something along those lines.

Palin's speech announcing her plans to resign was sloppy and rushed. Quit if it's all too much, fine, but quit in a way that preserves at least some chance of a future. Her horribly-written, terribly-delivered, gasping, incoherent (and that's a compliment) dishonest speech on July 3rd pounded nails in her own coffin. From the inside. Something more than being a lame duck governor was up. Big time.

Her speech in Fairbanks on the 26th was better, but not by much, and then, absurdly, bizarrely, she drove off and left Todd standing. Todd managed to joke about it with reporters ("No car for Todd.") but I know I certainly have never left my husband standing on a street corner by accident. I lose sunglasses from time to time, but hubby?

And then - in spite of having well in excess of 100,000 followers on Twitter - she has not set up her new EX Governor account - in what, five days? The adoring faithful over on Team Sarah are losing their minds. What does it take to set up a Twitter account? Five minutes? No one wastes this kind of political capital. She's been announced as a no-show at a Republican Woman's event at the Reagan Library, and now - as has been the strategy in the past - Poodle Stapleton denies that she ever agreed to attend in the first place.

No car for Todd indeed.

But does this have anything to do with the central theme of this website and blog?

The only thing I know for sure about this Palin saga is that photos of SP on 3/3 (@ the Newsweek conference with Janet Napolitano), 3/14 (with Sean Parnell), and 3/26 (with the young girl at the museum) prove without a doubt that she was not at 30 weeks, 32 weeks, and 33 weeks of pregnancy on those dates. For a public figure to attempt to fake a pregnancy in this day and age is ... odd. As I've maintained from the onset, SP is not "torqued to factory spec". She's a mess. And her family suffers.

As far as her political ambitions go, she, as a "not well" political figure, is much less to blame than those around her, her supporters who are supposedly sane and allowed this trainwreck to continue down the tracks for all these months. And to think she was almost a heart-beat from the American presidency. Honestly, it makes me sick to my stomach to think about it.

Here's hoping that she and her family will fade to the background, that she gets the mental health treatment that she needs, and that her family can do the necessary repairs to provide a healthy environment for the children. Heaven knows they need it.

I have a feeling the Pandora's Box we've been trying to open for the past almost-year is about to burst open like a Jack-in-the-Box, with all kinds of yucky stuff flowing out.

There's so much that's still unexplained: Sherry Johnston's arrest and the prosecutor charging her with multiple federal crimes vs. what could have been a single misdemeanor; Mercedes Johnston's reference so long ago to "my baby brother Trig";the relationship between Levi and Bristol -- and someone else not Johnny Chandler?; Joe Schmidt, who was at Sarah Palin's side instead of Todd Palin at the Wasilla picnic; Brad Hanson and Britta Hanson (who was at Sarah Palin's elbow in all the picnic farewells)...

All very strange, as has been this whole Sarah Palin story, since her "unveiling" to the rest of the country last fall.

Yeah, I knew that was coming...lol. Finally, Todd can get a life...and some alimony...alot of alimony. Nice. Palin gonna be giving mad hatter twitters about that subject for sure. She's gonna throw him under the bus soooooo hard.

yes, the lack of twitter is really strange. Leaving Todd is stranger. Something is going on that made Palin resign so suddenly, there are so many things to choose from. What is going on up there in Alaska, you have no Lt. Gov., no AG. This might turn out to be a wild weekend. By the way Meg has already denied the divorce and Montana rumors.

Remember the hint of a blackmail iceberg on IM awhile ago? So that could be the payoff to the actual Mom of Trig (whomsoever she might be), and maybe the payoff is being renegotiated in view of the bounty of the book advance.

The discussions on that subject could sure add a little stress to any divorce-prone family gathering, depending on who the Mom and Dad of Trig are.

It was so obvious during the Republican Convention - and ESPECIALLY during McCain's concession speech that something was very wrong in Sarah and Todd land. She had tears in her eyes and looked at Todd briefly and he couldn't even look at her - very frigid. They came across as having the same type of fake, icy relationship as John and Cindy McCain. Hope it's the tip of the 'iceberg scandal'.

"It is very possible the Palin split is a set up to make bloggers look like 'they are makin' stuff up'. Not wearing her ring, acting frosty with Todd, leaving him behind: all calculated."

I think the story might not be true- although I believe it- but this? Would take more intelligence than Sarah has displayed in her entire career. She really is clueless as to how she appears to others- nobody with any self-perception would say, "I can do what I like, until the courts say otherwise."

I keep remembering that long feature on Todd (was it in GQ? VF?) with the picture of him sitting in a chair with Piper on his lap while Sarah was off in Juneau. I remember thinking at the time, he looks sad. And it had to have hurt the marriage having her affair with Brad splattered all over, particularly given the timing of that affair with Willow's birth.

Not that Todd sounds like a nice guy, given the Wooten stories--and now the story of him going after Levi with a gun! Those two are both dangerous. I hope someone's watching out for the children.

It's funny, the Pee Zoo is always screaming at us for "hating her family" but the truth is, I think most of us feel and express great sympathy for her kids.

And I agree with Fauve -- it's the deep-background, deep-pockets supporters who scare me, way more than SP. Because when SP fades, they will present the next charismatic front man. Like another Dan Quayle -- just like SP only not v charismatic. Remember his quote "It's terrible to lose your mind"? (-- when speaking before the NAACP, whose slogan "A mind is a terrible thing to waste" was at that time well known to all -- except our little Danny, apparently. )

Re the SP/TP supposed separation -- I don't know, a little marital discord seems pretty non-newsworthy to me. Doesn't everyone have some at some point? Threat of divorce, threat of murder, toss the $30 wedding ring into the lake -- seems pretty tame to me. I'm more interested in the possible next events -- the VF article, the Sherry J legal developments.

So my first hunch about bodyguards for Levi was actually right -- to keep him from talking. Maybe it's all a lot less sinister than we thought.

"When stupidity, alone, can give the answer, there is no need to search for any other."

Gwynedd - Thanks for clearing up the Hansons - now that I think about it I think I recall a discussion about this - pointing out that in that area Hanson is a relatively common name - and they are not related.

Midnight Cajun says:It's funny, the Pee Zoo is always screaming at us for "hating her family" but the truth is, I think most of us feel and express great sympathy for her kids.

I couldn't agree more, MC. When I read the newest gossip twist about Sarah-Todd (which isn't surprising to anyone with eyes and a smidge of intuition) I immediately felt sorry for Piper, who I think is the saddest little girl in the world. She has been her mother's "beard" almost her whole life, for a whole range of impostery stuff.

I have no facts to prove my beliefs, but I have my intuition, which from my experience, has been as trustworthy as facts. Willow seems relatively stable. (Middle child most shielded from her mom's craziness?) Bristol is already who she is. Track is a mystery. But little Piper in her high heels. . . Little Piper as shield for non-pregnant belly.. .Little Piper as distraction at the last official speeches.

Yes-- I feel empathy for all the Palin children, and wish them all a better life than it appears they have.

The statement from Sarah Palin herself in reference to the "breaking up" is purported to be accurate, according to one of her chief Palinbots, Robert Stacy McCain:

QUOTE FROM SARAH PALIN"Divorce Todd? Have you seen Todd? I may be just a renegade hockey mom, but I'm not blind!"-- SARAH PALINYes, that is her OFFICIAL reponse, which I got via phone at 5:35 this afternoon. Take that to the bank.ORIGINAL POST (5:35 P.M.): More at the American Spectator. I expect to update here in a few minutes with a very recent photo of the very happily married couple....UPDATE 7:51 p.m.: Commenters ask if the quote is legit. Yes, absolutely. Authorized and official."

---------------

The Palinbots on so many of their sites seem delighted by that statement.

To me, it is worthy only of a woman who chose her mate on the basis of his beefcake quotient and not his intelligence, ability to support a family, or his personality.

You'd think Sarah Palin was pimping her husband... Ugh.

At least she can't call him that trailer-trashy title, "The First Dude", any more. Her "bots still do, though.

Oh, yeah, one more thing. Someone is evidently living in the past -- Palin hasn't been a hockey mom for almost 3 years.

Coming back from Costa Rica last night, I bought a copy of the Spanish edition of the June Vanity Fair, which had a lot of articles that don't appear here. One concerned an exhibit of twenty-five years of Annie Liebowitz's photos in Madrid. A full-page photo of Demi Moore, nude, and seven months pregnant with her first child, was displayed when I got up hastily to board my flight, with my wrist covering Demi from breasts to thigh. A whole row of travelers gasped, "Oh, my Lord! I'd forgotten ALL ABOUT..."

I sat down on the plane and studied it. Seven months, huh? She's enormous. She's even bigger than $P was in the Gusty shots at the Lege with her "empathy belly" in place.

Sure does make one wonder. So thank you, Audrey, for keeping the story real in real time. So many of us out here appreciate it.

Sarah Palin's lawyer threatened to serve a blogger with libel papers at the kindergarten where he works for writing a post saying the former Alaska governor was getting divorced.

Gryphen, who writes a blog called "The Immoral Minority," wrote on Saturday that "according to my source Sarah is finished with Todd and has decided to end their marriage."

Palin's lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, wrote a letter to the blogger, asking "if you want to be served with the summons and complaint at the kindergarten where you assist or at your residence."

Gryphen laughed off the threat, telling Alaska Report, "Nothing that I wrote in my post was meant to be malicious. I trust my source and simply reported what I had been told.Threatening to serve legal papers to an educator in a room full of five year olds? Now that is malicious."

From HuffPost.

Someone there also christened a new moniker for SP: Babble Spice. Doncha love it?!?!?!

To Bree, and others: I'm sorry about the implication in what I wrote yesterday, that Brad Hanson and Britta Hanson were related. I had them in the same sentence, but that didn't even occur to me. They seem to be people who have been in Sarah Palin's life at different times.

But indeed, Britta Hanson was at Palin's elbow throughout the picnics. I wonder if that was merely because Britta was in charge of the precious Blackberries...

It would have been funny if Palin had tried to juggle her Blackberries and serve hot dogs -- although I'm sure the Health Department would have something to say about that.

They evidently instructed Palin to put those gloves on and KEEP them on, after that first day of serving hot dogs/giving autographs with bare hands.

It now appears that Palin has threatened Gryphen over at the immoral minority with a lawsuit over slander.

And, she has not only threatened him with this, she has threatened to HAVE HIM RECEIVE SUMMONS IN FRONT OF 5 YEAR OLDS IN HIS KINDERGAREN CLASSROOM WHERE HE TEACHES.

Sorry about the caps, but this just blows my mind! Didn't she tell Joe Biden at the VP debate that heaven holds a special place for teachers or something? Didn't she praise his wife for being a teacher?

One might think that if Palin spokes-people are out there firmly denying the rumors of the Palins splitting that there can be no truth to the matter. It would be nuts to issue all of these denials and threats only to have it prove to be true. However, the Palins have a huge incentive to keep this under wraps as long as possible. If the Palins are indeed going their separate ways, it might seriously impair Sarah's ability to earn money. Everything from donations to her legal trust fund, to book deals and speaking appearences might be at risk if she in Todd engage in a public and messy divorce. If the Palins are actually considering splitting, my guess is that Sarah is desparately negotiating with Todd to get him to keep quiet and pretend that they still have a real marriage while they actually live their separate lives. However, considering how quick Sarah is to throw anyone under the bus who crosses her, I don't think it would be possible for her to keep any separation under wraps for long. She would not be able to resist making mean-spirited snarky anti-Todd remarks.

Could Sarah be leaving Todd to distance herself from Housegate, should it become an issue? Todd says he built the house "with some buddies"; I assume that doesn't include Sarah.

Would a divorce discredit Sarah somewhat with her base? Of course, Republicans get divorced, and Fundamentalists get divorced. But no one sees it as a good thing. There are still people who think that you should never get divorced, "no matter what."

Does anyone know what divorce laws are like in Alaska? Are records sealed from the public? by which I mean grounds for divorce, monetary settlement, child custody specifics, etc.? Is everything earned during the marriage marital property? If Sarah signs a big contract (book, radio, etc.) during the marriage, i.e. before it ends, can Todd get half the money? If so, will she wait to sign until the marriage officially ends? If so, will that speed up the divorce so she can sign & get her money? This is getting even soapier than before?

Why would she move to Montana? Won't that make it hard on the kids, having the other parent thousands of miles away (no matter where they live)? Poor kids. Perhaps Sarah has a lover who lives in Montana?

Out of revenge, perhaps Todd can get money from a tabloid and spill the beans about Trig...unless he is the father, in which case Sarah can spill the beans about Trig...except that would mean admitting that she lied about her pregnancy.

Kajo said, "It would have been funny if Palin had tried to juggle her Blackberries and serve hot dogs -- although I'm sure the Health Department would have something to say about that."

What unnerved me, apart from $P's lack of gloves, was all that unrestrained hair. I worked for two years in university food service, and everyone with long hair, female and male, wore ponytails covered with hairnets. Although I suppose in that crowd, if someone got what they figured to be one of $P's "hairs" in their mouth, they'd probably put it up on eBay!

at IM someone commented what is obvious to us: of all the allegations made against $ARAH, by far the earliest is BABYGATE and YET she has NOT send her attorney with a threat of slander lawsuit againts PD or TT or anyone else who persistently raises this fraud!

We can only hope that SP will sue someone for libel. Claims for slander or libel put the defendent character and reputation at issue, since the tort involves damage to one reputation.

The defense is eligible for discovery on a wide variety of issues, including the truth of anything she said in the past (such as "I'm pregnant") and what impact on her reputation any intentionally false statement by a third party would actually have on her reputation.

Most successful slander and libel claims involve false, malicious assertions of heinous acts on the part of innocent people with decent commercial prospects, but are not public figures.

Occasionally, a public figure can win a case against a tabloid on the basis of that publication figure using assertions that they knew or should have known were false simply to sell papers. If Gryphen actually made any money from the blog, there might be some support for such a claim, but the lack reputation damage issue is still an defense.

Perhaps if they did serve Gryphen with papers in front of the 5-year-olds, he could have them chant:

Perhaps it's time for us ($P would never bother; it doesn't support her interests) to brush up on New York Times v. Sullivan, a 1964 Supreme Court case that clearly delineated the standards of actual malice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times_v._Sullivan

According to Sullivan, for Gryphen to be tried and convicted, the court would have to prove that he acted in full knowledge that the facts he printed were false. Even if Gryph were wrong (and I don't believe he is), he posted the item with complete trust in his sourcing and conviction of its veracity.

Stardove - yes, she does look somewhat pregnant in the video. However, she doesn't look nearly as pregnant as she did less than 5 days previously in the Gusty photos. I guess all that air travel shrinks the belly.

This was meant as a threat. That's the reason that is was made. The subtext is, 'We'll do this at the place you work. We'll do it in front of the children if you don't write a retraction.'

Of course it was a threat, just an empty one. As my recent post elaborated, the party suing for slander or libel has a very high burden to overcome, AND the plaintiff puts their own reputation at issue.

Would someone sue someone just because they suggested that person might be getting a divorce? There's no shame in a divorce and no damage to one's reputation, particularly with a publicly issued (and accepted) denial.

BTW -- I have copied of Two Babies on hand now and can fulfill orders immediately, for those that are interested. There's also a review up on Amazon, from someone I do not know and must have received an advance copy through a service, and that person gave it 4-stars (out of five).

As a special favor to the PD community, if you order through the Liveware Publishing web site (not Amazon), I'll include free shipping. Just put your PD commentor name somewhere in the order form.

[Note to Morgan ... I hope you don't mind this notice, but several regular posters expressed interest.]

Rogue said... Stardove - yes, she does look somewhat pregnant in the video. However, she doesn't look nearly as pregnant as she did less than 5 days previously in the Gusty photos. I guess all that air travel shrinks the belly.

Or she was having a low amniotic fluid day. (Plagarized from a commenter here months ago)

She looks "pregnant enough" in the video (didn't we all agree that she had some extreme low amniotic fluid days?) Anyway, an airline staffer should have noticed it enough even at this level. However no one ever seemed to notice on either flight. I can grant that before she hit the national stage she would not be recognizable enough from Dallas to Seattle but from Seattle to Anchorage someone had to be able to know she was the governor (or GINO if you like)in the Alaskan leg or even at Anchorage airport It always seemed weird that NO ONE seemed to notice or remember a well-known and supposedly pregnant looking public figure that was in "labor". Leaking all that fluid must have contributed to the low amniotic fluid day making her look svelte as usual.

Also cheers and support to Gryphen. We're with you. So much for "family values--momma grizzly" Sarah. She's actually willing to traumatize a classroom of 5 year-old kids just to make a threat stronger. Even the most hard-hearted city cops ask people to step outside to make the arrest when kids are there. (and camp Sarah accuses us of picking on kids! Nice hypocrisy but I expect nothing less from them)

In the interest of the high standards of accuracy of this blog I'm obliged to point out that SP is actually there in the uncropped version of that photo as it appears in Esquire's feature on Todd http://www.esquire.com/features/todd-palin-bio-0509-3The article does mention in another context that "his wife won't be home for hours" --so your comments may well be valid, just not for that particular photo

Dangerous, YOU wrote "Two Babies"?! Well, good for you! I was intrigued by the excerpts posted on Amazon and already had ordered it Two-Day Prime. I did appreciate the offer of free shipping, though. I look forward to reading "Two Babies"(AGAIN, tee-hee)!

Stardove,Your point about SP pulling her pillow out for the TSA is just another funny. sad aspect to this sordid tale. Like her thought process about the scarves, one can only imagine what she thinking:Will the X-rays see the pillow? What if they total body cavity search me? Do I stuff it back in past the TSA? Hey, at least, I don't have to ask the flight attendant for a pillow, etc.

Since you like mechanical terms, wasn't there another quote like "a bubble off level" as well? and one about off-plumb? A favorite old German one is "nicht alle tassen im schrank"----not all the teacups in the cabinet. Don't even get me started in French!

i just thought of something with her Dallas tripDo pregnant women go through the xray machines at airport security terminals?I wonder what the procedure is for prego ladies?I know I would be leary doing it if I were pregnant..just a thought